Marathon Weekend 2023

[Baloo in MI]

Good Morning RunDisney All-Stars! Time for SAFD.

I hope it is ok that I held onto Lee’s name for all of us. Being the nerd I am I sat around trying to think of a new one but ultimately RunDisney All-Stars just felt right. Anyway on to today’s question.

Describe a time you experienced, or saw someone experience, a pixie dust moment in the parks.

Here is mine:
On the Monday after the marathon I was in the Starbucks on Main Street. And as I was getting closer to the front of the line a cast member came up to me and said congratulations. I said thank you. But then they proceeded to talk with me for a few moments about running and the races. Then they asked for my name and then went behind the counter. A few minutes later it was my turn, I ordered my coffee and then while waiting for my drink my name was called. Went up to the counter but it was not my drink it was a brownie in a bag that said congratulations. Didn’t see the cast member again. But while we had been talking about running they asked if I get cravings for food while running I had said that not during the race, but after the race I kept thinking about brownies.

That was a good brownie!

 

[camaker]

SAFD: We made a trip to Disney with my parents near Christmas a few years ago and went to Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party early in the trip. We didn't realize that a lot of the regular restaurants would be closed during the party, so we were left scrambling a bit for dinner, especially my father who was fighting breast cancer at the time. He was going through a trial with an experimental chemo drug that gave him sores inside his mouth and made eating difficult. While DW, DDs and I settled on Pinocchio Haus, he and my mother made their way over to Storybook Treats where they talked to the CMs about the situation and found something he could eat. They brought him out a chocolate milkshake and said "this is on Tigger". I'll never forget that little act of kindness.

 

[Kitty-chan]

SAFD: My then-eight-year-old daughter lost a Buzz Lightyear souvenir mug from Pizza Planet one night at the Studios. We went to Guest Services to find out whether we could somehow buy one (Pizza Planet was closed by then, and this was the last day of our trip). The CM at Guest Services couldn't get a replacement for us, but instead offered to take my tearful daughter to the gift shop nearby to pick out any mug she wanted as a replacement. The replacement mug was very special to my daughter for years. We still talk about that day, and she's 25 years old now!

 

[Herding_Cats]

SAFD:

Last year in February SIL and I kept our reservation for Princess weekend and made it a moms-getaway weekend instead of a race weekend. I snagged us a DVC room at AKL (and they ONLY had the dvc section at Jambo open, so the pool area was almost completely empty, which was just amazing!) and we went to Sanaa for dinner. We both had left babies (17mo and 15mo) at home, and it was the first time I had been away from mine overnight EVER. And about half way through our appetizer I started having an anxiety attack. The thing I have *maybe* once a year. And I absolutely could not eat. Our server was amazing (as was my SIL), boxed everything up for us, put my drink in a to-go cup, hid a light-up Olaf clip that comes with the kids souvenir cups in the bag, along with a free dessert. It was a very thoughtful touch, and not something I expected at all.

 

[Naomeri]

SAFD: back in January 2020, on my first trip after Rise of the Resistance opened, I was crowded into HS with thousands of my nearest and dearest strangers, waiting for 7am to get a boarding group. I had been very active on the DISBoards RotR BG strategy thread, and there were rumors that the 2 hour return window was going to be changing that day, and they asked for someone to confirm with a guest services person, and I volunteered. So, 7am came, and I got BG 120 or something ridiculously high, but hey, I had a BG and I wasn’t complaining.

I made my way to a blue umbrella and waited for the people with actual concerns to finish up, and then asked my question (yes, the return window was changing when the waits were low to only 1 hour, instead of 2).

I got to chatting with the guy, and he saw I was wearing a shirt from the 2019 Star Wars Convention in Chicago, and we talked about that a bit. Then he asked if I had a BG, and I was like, “Yeah, I got 120!”—definitely not sounding sad about it. He pulled out his tablet, confirmed my party was just me, and switched me into BG 10 (or something similarly low) and I basically got to walk right onto the hottest ride in the parks.

 

[HangWithMerida]

SAFD: The first time we took our daughter to Disney World, my in-laws came along. We went in November and they had already started the very merry Christmas party. We bought tickets for ourselves and mentioned it to my in-laws, but by the time they went to purchase that day had already sold out. So, the day of the party comes and my mother-in-law went to guest services to see if they could just buy a ticket. She mentioned that they were here with their granddaughter and what happened with the ticket selling out, and initially the cast member just said I’m sorry it’s completely sold out. My mother-in-law said thanks anyway we figured it was worth a shot and the cast member told her to hold on just one minute. She disappeared for a brief moment and then came back and gifted my in-laws two tickets to the party that night, so not only did they get to go but they got to go for free! My mother-in-law thanked her profusely and said I really don’t mind paying for them. The cast member said “Just have fun with your granddaughter.”

 

[JAMIESMITH]

SAFD: In 2012, my daughter was picked to go up to the stage at the BATB show and was gifted the rose from Belle, who has always been her favorite princess. In 2016, she was chosen as Princess of the Day at BBB in DS. Her makeover was done in the storefront window. She's always loved being the center of attention so this was right up her alley and this mama got tons of amazing pictures through Memory Maker.

 

[lookingforsunshine]

SAFD:
I love reading everyone’s responses! I had my bachelorette party at Disney in 2017. It was a one night/one park day affair right before my wedding that weekend in Orlando. My first pixie dust was when we got to our room in Art of Animation— I had a letter of congratulations from Mickey Mouse and he left me a gift of a picture frame (and something else I think, I forget). My friends said they had nothing to do with it and I have no idea if they did but it was a special way to start my bachelorette party and the frame was really nice. I have a picture from the party in it now.
The next day, we got to MK basically as early as we could. We had planned to spend as much time in the parks as possible because we only had the one day. We did MK for a long time, then made our way to Epcot, then finally to Animal Kingdom which was open until 1 or 2 am that night for Extra Magic hours. By the time we got to DAK, I was exhausted and we were all hangry because we hadn’t planned our meals very well. It was also like 11 pm. I remember we were all just sitting in a quick service restaurant and clearly looked like we were not having a good time lol. A CM noticed this and came over to talk to us and also brought us free cupcakes! It was really kind.

The examples of kids losing souvenirs and getting replacements makes me laugh because this past MW, my very grown adult DH lost his sword from CRT on the People Mover. A CM gave us a replacement haha. The Magic continues, even as adults

 

[GuinnessRunner]

SAFD: Lots to choose from but one I will never forget was when our oldest DD was about 7 (wow so like 12 years ago now - I'm getting old). We had just gone through the turnstyles at Hollywood Studios when a cast member came up to her and started chatting. After a couple minutes she asked if we had a few minutes and when we told her we did she took us back to a room near guest services. We went in and as soon as the door shut, another door opened and Minnie and Daisy came in for a private meet and greet. They were so sweet with her and it was an awesome experience.

 

[SheHulk]

SAFD: I've told this story before, maybe in response to a similar SAFD question before, so I'll give the shortened version here:

My younger DS has a developmental disability, and one of his real issues over the years is that he needs things to be THE SAME. You can see why we keep vacationing at Disney World. One of our must-do's for many years was Be Our Guest, he loved the steak frites. When they switched over to the prix fixe menu, it was totally my fault because I didn't check the items, but steak frites was taken off the menu. Long story short, we sit down, excited for our meal (it was just me & him this time), and DS sees there is no steak frites. Our server comes over, and DS is already looking upset. Mind you, even though he has a disability it's more or less "hidden", he looks kind of odd but not odd enough that people are automatically sympathetic or realize he has a problem. So often he can just seem like a jerk to outsiders. DS expresses his displeasure that the menu changed. Server tries to direct him to other items on the menu, showing that there is still beef, just no french fries. DS just gets more testy. I am super-apologetic but sitting there worrying that the evening is going to be ruined.

DS finds something else to order, but as we are sitting there waiting for our food, he's getting more agitated. I'm just waiting for him to have a little meltdown and we have to leave. There is an issue with the appetizer and I'm thinking, ok this is a $150+ disaster, the night is ruined. When our entrees come out, our server brings a plate of fries along with DS's meal! It seemed like he sent out to Casey's or somewhere nearby to produce french fries! It was such a nice thing to do, instead of just deciding this kid is a spoiled brat, our server reacted with sympathy and went out of his way. DS recovered immediately, to the degree that he was able to apologize to the server for being upset earlier, which was a big step for him. Our evening was saved due to this man's understanding and kindness.

We visit a lot and have received other kinds of pixie dust, big and small. But this was by far the best and exemplifies the reason we keep coming back. People who work here have always seemed to just know when something is off and react with kindness instead of snippiness. If this happened on vacation in a big city at a nice restaurant I know our evening would have gone quite differently. I know a lot of other parents who have kids with disabilities feel the same way. As DS gets older, he is doing better all the time, and maybe we won't need to vacation here so often, for much longer. But Disney has made a world of difference to our family, that we have had somewhere we can go where he is (we are) treated with understanding. So much of the world is not like that.

 

[The Expert]

SAFD:
DH and I are the Disney freaks in the family, and when we bought DVC in 2001 it was in part so we could take our nephews and nieces to the parks every couple of years (no kids of our own). One of our early DVC trips (and our then-youngest, 5-year-old nephew's first trip ever), was in late May 2002, after he and his brother got out of school and could travel from Missouri. The weather was just starting to get really hot.

We were at MK in the early afternoon one day, sun beating down, crowds everywhere, standing in the area between Splash and BTMRR, having a joint meltdown about what to do. All the lines were crazy and fastpasses were hours out, if they were available. We had not yet done BTMRR, which they both desperately wanted to do, but really didn't want to wait in line in the heat. As we were about to give up and go back to the hotel pool, a character I've never seen before came up to my youngest nephew and struck up a conversation. Turns out Prospector Gus was lost and looking for the nearby mine! He asked if my nephews could show him the way. As we walked closer to BTMRR (me thinking maybe they would give us a fastpass), Gus said "I know a shortcut!" and took us in the exit! A cast member made eye contact with him and we were loaded on the next train, in the very back car. The whole ride, Gus rode with my youngest nephew and Gus was screaming and yelling like he was scared to death. We're all cracking up laughing, having the BEST time. When the ride was over, Gus thanked my nephews for helping him out, posed for a few photos, and disappeared into the crowd. PURE. MAGIC. We still talk about that day, and it was 20 years ago!



Interesting side note. We saw "Gus" about 10 years later on Main Street, as the fire chief. My nephews were there and immediately recognized him. They asked him if he knew Gus and had a fun conversation with him for a few minutes, and got a photo with him once more.

 

[gosalyn_mallard]

SAFD: July 2021 - we had booked a standard view for a week at the Boardwalk. We were given a Boardwalk view on the top floor above Boardwalk Bakery. Crescent Lake is one of my favorite places at Disney. I was in love with the view.

 

[xjillianpaige]

Good Morning RunDisney All-Stars! Time for SAFD.

I hope it is ok that I held onto Lee’s name for all of us. Being the nerd I am I sat around trying to think of a new one but ultimately RunDisney All-Stars just felt right. Anyway on to today’s question.

Describe a time you experienced, or saw someone experience, a pixie dust moment in the parks.

My training journal is full of Pixie Dust Moments - both from this trip (free churros, pin purchase, Ratatouille LL help) and previous ones (Tinkerbell moment)... but I'm going to go with the churro one from this trip.

My group was at Magic Kingdom enjoying some snacks from Pecos Bills when a cavalcade came by! A bunch had come through while we ate, but this time my cousin ran out to the path and watched from there - dancing the whole time! Jenna and I were standing on the fence and watching from there, and Alex was at the staircase. I noticed a CM standing against a pole while we were watching the cavalcade but didn't think much of it.

The characters pass and Ashley comes back to our table to let us know she's going inside to get a water. While she's there, she sees some churros at the counter and jokes with the CM (the same CM who was outside) that the water will be refreshing but she'd rather have churros.

"Well good, because these are for you."

"What?"

"Yep, show me where you're sitting, these are yours."

The CM told Ashley she had so much fun watching her dance during the cavalcade that she went inside and put in an order for churros for us. Those churros were extra tasty and it was just such an unexpected magical moment!

 

[Barca33Runner]

SAFD:

One of the things that keeps us going back to Disney is all of the magical moments from CMs. One from our most recent trip was at Sebastian’s. This was the first time I mobile checked in for a restaurant and I noticed the allergy section. I was a little worried about dinner because my mom is a “cilantro is the devil. It tastes like soap (wax in her case). I can’t eat anything with cilantro” person. Since it was a family style, prix fixe meal and she couldn’t order on her own things could have gone badly.

Anyway, since it was there, I checked the “other” box to see how things would go. The first question our server asked was what our ingredient issue was. I explained that I knew the Caribbean food would be heavy on cilantro and that, while she’s not allergic, it would pretty much ruin the food for my mom. He was a little thrown (as we were obviously in the wrong place for a cilantro-hater) but said he’d run it by the chefs and see what could be done.

The salad and pull apart rolls came out and weren’t affected by the cilantro limitation. We were shocked when the main course came out though. I had expected that we’d all be getting food without cilantro or there would be something they delineated as having no cilantro. Instead they brought a small cilantro free platter of all the meats and offerings for her and a larger one for the rest of the table with the normal selection.

I don’t know what I was expecting but they really went out of their way to accommodate our unorthodox request.

 

[flav]

Thank you @Baloo in MI for keeping this tradition alive, my family loves to be brought down memory lane!

SAFD: We were lucky to have been Pixie dusted a number of times, may it be a pile of gluten free treats on DH first trip to Disney, Cinderella 4yo DD opening the ball with Prince Charming, fresh flowers leis for our anniversary or a Turkey Leg on (Mickey’s) the house because the cart had been moved from Adventureland to Tomorrowland.

However, there were two instances when we were amazed by how far CM went to help us. The first one, we were coming back from Epcot on our arrival night and the wheel from our stroller broke, probably weakened by the airplane ride. We were distracted and ended up on the beach just as the fireworks went off. After that magical interlude, we found our room and were wondering how we would handle the next day with a 3yo and a 6yo. We called the front desk to see if they had tools or something that could help us with fixing our stroller. They sent the resort engineer and this gentleman expertly and graciously repaired our stroller. What a relief and a way to save the trip!

The second one was during my solo trip for the runDisney Wine and Dine. I went to the Pop food court and asked for basic groceries: Lactose free milk, loaf of bread, hard boiled eggs and a case of water. The chef went in the storeroom to fetch all this for me. He brought it to the cash and asked how I was planning to carry this to my room. When I answered in my harms, he offered to do it for me and did! We chatted about running and family, making me feel at home away from mine and not as lonely as I could have been. Super sweet.

 

[opusone]

SAFD: I posted this before, so I apologize if you have already read it, but it is still the best pixie dust moment for our family (and there have been several)…

In 2018, we went to Pandora for the first time, and as we were waiting for our FoP FP+ time, the Pandora drummers started their show, so we sat down and started watching. Our son (~12 or 13 at the time), who has high-functioning autism, was totally into it. I mean, he felt the music and drummed his heart out during the show. So, the show ended, and we started walking towards FoP. We got about 100 feet away, and one of the CMs from the show caught up to us and handed our son her painted drumsticks from the show stating that he was amazing and understood the Na'vi way. It was awesome; he was excited; those drumsticks were carried around with pride. He had a constant smile on his face. My wife looked online to see if they did that at every show, and it sounded like they didn't and only handed them out if they truly thought someone deserved it. Also, the CMs paint their drumsticks themselves. In any case, it was incredible for our family.

Fast forward a few hours later... we were riding EE, and my son was slightly apprehensive (although he loves pretty much all rollercoasters once he's done them once), so I took his drumsticks, put them in the provided seat pocket in front of me, and focused on him throughout the ride. Needless to say, he had a blast, and we were so caught up in our exciting conversation after the ride, that I totally pulled an idiotic dad move and forgot all about the drumsticks. We realized this within a few minutes (before exiting the ride area), and I returned through the exit to ask a CM to check the next few trains on our row. Unfortunately, they were gone. The CM said to comeback throughout the day to see if they had been turned it, and although we returned several times, they never turned up. It was just about all my son could think about, and I felt horrible.

As we were waiting to be seated at Tiffins for dinner that night, my wife heard the drummers starting a new show, and she got up and said she would be back. I knew exactly what she was planning, but I couldn't say anything because I didn't want my son to get his hopes up. My wife walked over to the drummer show, waited for it to end, then went up to one of the CMs and explained the whole story. Needless to say, he immediately handed his drumsticks to her, and when my wife returned with the drumsticks, the excitement once again returned to my son.

It truly was magical: the original CM tracking us down to give the drumsticks to my son in the first place, the CM at EE who tried everything possible to find them for us, and the final CM drummer who gave his drumsticks up based on my wife's explanation. I still have tears sometimes thinking about this. I believe he still has these drumsticks in his room somewhere.

 

[Novatrix]

SAFD:

My most recent pixie dust moment was when I came down to Disney for my first marathon. My Mom was supposed to join me for the trip, but 4 hours before our flight the dogsitter canceled on us so she ended up staying behind and I came down solo.

Upon check-in, I was telling the Cast Member how my Mom had really been looking forward to seeing the gingerbread house over at the Grand Floridian and that was what she was most disappointed about missing. The next day, there was a knock on my resort room door, with a special delivery of gingerbread shingles from the Grand Floridian bakery. My Mom was so happy when I brought them home!

 

[Cabius]

Not pixie dust per se, but my favorite Disney story and one I can't NOT tell.

In January 2019, my then three-year-old daughter Charlotte met Aurora in Epcot. She told Princess Aurora all about her chickens, Aurora and Maleficent, and left her with a gift. She had insisted on making gifts for all of the Princesses ahead of time - little beaded bracelets and a small card that said "Love Charlotte".

Fast-forward to January 2020, and now-four-year-old Charlotte heads back to Epcot. She meets Aurora and gifts her a card (no bracelet this time), signed with her name. Aurora reads it... and gasps. "YOU'RE CHARLOTTE WITH THE CHICKENS!!!"

It had been a full year, and she remembered! In her little mind, it was no big deal that Aurora remembered her -- she remembered Aurora after all! -- but I was blown away.

Charlotte had to inform her that Aurora was eaten by a cat, but it was okay because we had a new Aurora now. They talked, and danced together, and took a few photos. As you do. But it was different.

I whine and complain about the epidemic of charge-more-give-less, but that moment is ... well, it's magic.

(I posted this story on Twitter as a Cast Compliment. It didn't go viral or anything, but apparently it made its way through Disney because Bob Iger liked one of the replies. So... there's that.)

 

[pluto377]

I've only been pixie dusted once, though we have had some nice CM interactions just talking and whatever. I ordered some ice cream at the treats place over by Winnie the Pooh and for whatever reason the cast member told me I didn't have to pay. I was like, what, really? And he was like, yup, enjoy Hoping for some pixie dust for my birthday trip in March.

 

[Barca33Runner]

Bob Iger liked one of the replies.

And, presumably, Bob Chapek saw it and thought, “see Cast Members don’t need higher pay, they sometimes get free bracelets.”